In Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraq’s Council of Representatives reconvened with a prediction by President Jalal Talabani that an end to sectarian strife in the country could come about by the end of next year.
According to an Associated Press report, Talabani said Iraqi forces would be able to handle any remaining violence by that time.
“I don’t think fighting will continue until then if the steps of national reconciliation go according to plan,” the president explained. “If some groups are still fighting, our forces will be able to take care of it.”
In one of its first acts after the summer recess, the Council of Representatives extended Iraq’s state of emergency for an additional month, reauthorizing powers that grant Iraqi security forces greater flexibility in dealing with violence. The current law has been in place for almost two years, renewed every month since its initial authorization in November 2004.
During the session, speaker Mahmud Mashhadani urged Iraqis to support Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s national reconciliation project.
“Otherwise,” he said, “we will face the worst period in modern Iraqi history.
“We are the elected leaders of Iraq and I’m confident that the terrorists will not succeed in what they do,” Mashhadani said.
Earlier in the day, parliamentarian Tayseer al-Mashhadani, an engineer and lawmaker who was held hostage for two months by militants, opened the meeting by telling the crowd her ordeal made real to her the agony Iraqis are experiencing.
According to an Associated Press report, she urged Iraqis to set aside their differences for the sake of their country.
“Brothers and sisters, despite all the setbacks and wounds I suffered, I felt a deeper wound and a bigger pain - that of Iraq and my people who voted for me,” al-Mashhadani said.
Also this week, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said transferring control of Iraq’s security from the U.S.-led Coalition to the Government of Iraq was essential.
According to media reports, the trip was Beckett’s first to Iraq since her appointment in May. During her fact-finding mission, Beckett said the handover of security responsibility in Iraq from British to local forces will continue.
The secretary also met with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh. According to a BBC report, Beckett afterwards said it was “absolutely key” that the elected Iraqi government be seen to be assuming responsibility.
“There has been responsibility that has been transferred already and we hope and believe that that is a process that will continue,” she said.
Britain transferred control of Muthana province to Iraq in July, making it the country’s first province to be responsible for its own security since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
According to the BBC report, Beckett said it is vital to the future of the people of Iraq that the Iraqi government succeeds, because “there will certainly never be a better chance to rebuild a better Iraq.”
In other developments throughout Iraq:
- Iraqi Police and Soldiers, along with U.S. Marines and Soldiers from Regimental Combat Team 7, detained 30 confirmed insurgents and 38 suspected insurgents over the weekend throughout the western al-Anbar province.
- Amid a steady counter-insurgency campaign in Baghdad, Fallujah and surrounding areas, combined U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to achieve major successes in locating and destroying enemy weapons caches hidden in those regions.
(Compiled from official DoD sources and wire reports)